Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Waco
– Judge Ralph T. Strother had a hell of a hard-working Monday on
the 19th District Criminal Court bench.

When
it was over, a phalanx of armed guards walked him to his pickup -
because they felt it was necessary.

Accused capital murderer Ricky Cummings

The
McLennan County Courthouse bristled with officers bent on
unprecedented security as rival crowds of relatives of an accused
capital murderer confronted those of two victims cut down and killed
in an ambuscade fired in March of 2011.

Numerous
verbal altercations and smoldering near-riot conditions prevailed in
the the third floor rotunda outside the courtroom during the morning
session.

Surprisingly,
prosecutors spent most of the first day of the capital murder trial
of Ricky Cummings eliciting testimony about another killing that took
place nearly a year earlier, in a completely different east Waco
location.

News cameramen stand by, awaiting interesting footage

Though
Mr. Cummings, who is 23, and three other young men are indicted for
the murders of the two men in the parking lot at Lakewood Villas,
1100 N. 6th St., in March of 2011, it was the shooting
death of Emil Bowers III on April 8, 2010, in an east Waco park many
blocks distant that occupied the attention of witnesses throughout
most of the day.

The
motive for the killing of Tyrus Sneed, 17, and Keenan Hubert, 20, is
thought to have been revenge for the shooting of Mr. Bowers the
previous year.

Two
other men suffered severe gunshot wounds, but somehow managed to
survive the attack described as an ambush while the four of them sat
in a Mercury Marquis in the parking lot of the subsidized housing
project in March of 2011.

As
Special Crimes Detective Michael Walsh described the ongoing ad hoc
investigation of Mr. Bowers' death by his mother Sheila Bowers and a
man named Freddie Hilliard, members of Mr. Cummings' family sat
stone-faced. The detective, who has 24 years experience, explained
that many of the leads and suspicions furnished by the pair were
inconclusive. Others were completely false.

Jurors
stared at numerous photos projected on a screen that depicted Mr.
Bowers dressed in a bright red polo shirt and a black golf cap.

One
photo focused on Mr. Bowers balancing a stockless “street sweeper”
shotgun with a pistol grip on his shoulder. In another photo, he
grinned while flashing a gang sign with his right hand with the index
finger folded, middle, ring and pinky extended chest high.

Sixteen
young men posed at his funeral dressed in identical red shirts with
epaulets, sergeants' chevrons, winged patches over one breast pocket
that have the word “combat” embroidered on them, and a row of
service ribbons over the other. Each man in the group portrait is
flashing the same gang sign.

Asked
what such sign language usually denotes, Detective Walsh said, in a
single-word answer, “Drugs.”

As
a prosecutor questioned him, the detective described several avenues
of investigation Mrs. Bowers and her friend suggested, only to learn
that their accusations were unfounded. He rejected the adjective
“forceful” as an accurate description of the victim's mother,
choosing the description “very demanding” as more accurate.

She
was often frustrated in her efforts, but eventually, said the
detective, a Mr. Stephen Peace was charged and indicted for the
shooting of Mr. Bowers.

In
one case, he related, the couple set up a meeting at an area church
using a member of the clergy as a go-between.

Waco Police Officer Colter waits to testify

When
a three-year veteran patrolman named Officer Colbert took the stand,
he testified that he was the second officer to arrive at the scene of
the shooting of the four young men at Lakewood Villas in March 2011.

He
described a scene in which the assailants sprayed the “suspect
vehicle,” a gray four-door Mercury Marquis sedan, riddling it with
dozens upon dozens of bullet holes. When the projector depicted two
young men slumped in the back seat, their bodies covered with blood
and the windows of the car shattered, its sheet metal skin looking
like Swiss cheese, most of the women seated with their family members
began to sob hysterically.

As
he and other police officers cordoned off the crime scene to preserve
such evidence as the dozens of spent cartridges expelled by
semiautomatic weapons in the attack, he said, several hundred
bystanders quickly assembled.

Angered,
they began to fight following numerous arguments, the causes of which
he said, he was unsure. He described a near-riot of what had turned
into an unruly mob of an estimated two to three hundred persons. The
mood of the crowd was "very emotional," according Officer Colbert.

“We
seriously considered getting out the tear gas and fire hoses to clear
that crowd away from the crime scene,” he recalled.

As
Judge Strother released the jurors to return for a resumption of
testimony at 8:30 this morning, he ordered the gallery to remain
seated until bailiffs and security guards in the parking lot reported
each juror safely in their cars and gone, headed out of the downtown
area.

Criminal District Attorney Abel Reyna maintaining courtroom presence

Then
he had deputies and Waco police officers escort first the relatives
of the victims from the courtroom, down the stairs, and out of the
building, before he then had the bailiffs escort Mr. Cummings'
relatives outside - and off the Courthouse property.

3 comments:

These guys should be singled out for their actions but they do not represent all black people. Never did and thank God they never will. They are a bunch of punks and wanna-be's who unfortunately grew up really tough/harsh without fathers or parents/good role models around but still their actions, I cannot agree with ever. Such a sad ordeal especially since I'm sure children were around and witnessed it, along with the innocent bystanders around. How about the apt owners make it look attractive, safer, viable, and so businesses can evolve there to create jobs, etc. The playing field just needs to be leveled more. Maybe I'm getting off track some but it's all relative still.